When I was growing up, I had the luxury of having the best (cough) 8-bit computer, the wonderful Commodore Plus/4. No-one wrote games for the Plus/4 but they did wrote games for its less capable sister, the Commodore 16. One company that released a fair few C16 games was Uk-based Tynesoft.
These game seem to have made a mark on László Rajcsányi, who over the last few years has been quietly converting a load of Tynesoft and other software houses C16 games to the Game Boy Color, using GBStudio. He says:
A long time ago, when I was a kid, I played a lot with Commodore 16 games of an English company called Tynesoft. Unfortunately, they have since fallen into disrepair, but their games remain for us. As the world changed, so did gaming machines, and as a generation grew up, it became possible to rewrite these games to other consoles. I would like to introduce these awesome games to the people who like the Nintendo Gameboy Color. Receive with great love, and have fun!
Rajcsányi has now partnered with InsideGadgets.com to create a physical cart with a compilation of Tynsoft games on for the C16. The games included are:
RAFFLES
Raffles leaves a bubbing champage party at his hotel in London to plunder five one mansions in the neighbourhood. He leaves his robs at the dead of night to his first target Mansion avoiding the local police patrol cars on route. Having arrived at his first job, he breaks in and walks carefully through the rooms until he finds the jewel filled safe. But watch out there are Security Guards onduty! Best of luck!
VOX
You have to defend the 4 cities of the planet “VOX” from the alien invasion force. You must destroy the alien craft by moving a sight over the screen and firing guided missiles to sight’s location. There are 3 levels. Each level consist of a set number of alien craft but an unlimited number of ammo Saucers and Stunt Planes. To complete a level you must destroy 10 alien bombs.
POGO PETE
You control a young boy, on a pogo-stick, named ‘Pogo Pete’. Some children have decided to build an adventure playground in the street. You must try out all the obstacles in the playground and you have to pick up all the released balloons. You move Peter over 8 screens, but you can’t fall to the ground. You have one minute to complete the level, but if you fall while jumping, the clock stops. You have a total of three lives to complete the playgrounds in the city of Blaydon.
LUNAR DOCKING
The Space Shuttle “Columbia” leaves base loaded with three uranium fuel packs to refuel the rocket “Argon” suspended in high orbit. The shuttle is unable to reach a high altitude to dock up with “Argon” so an Astronaut has to carry each of the three packs left by the shuttle from low earth orbit through space to the waiting rocket. Space travel can be very hazardous so watch out for those asteroids, satellites as your jet pack propels you through space on the way to refuelling your rocket. After docking all 3 uranium packages on board “Argon”, another mission awaits you.
ZAP’ EM
You are in full of the Gun Ship “Zok” with the mission of wiping out those aliens and other flying objects in your universe. Your craft has powerful thrust jets to help you crush those aliens before they get you! The universe is one screen wide with a visual indicator to help you plot your position with the aliens appearing from all directions. Now get ready to annihilate the Crawlers and the Bomber, but beware some of the Aliens are indestructible. You will have to find out which is which the hard way!
SUPER GRAN
Action starts over Chisleton with Super Gran on her Flycycle being chased by an Imposter Gran firing cannon balls at her. Having survived that screen she moves on the next action. Professor Black has asked Super Gran to help him take his Skimmer to the Science Exhibition. To do this she must drive along a twisting road avoiding potholes kerbs and, of course, that Evil Scunner Campbell. Having guided the Skimmer to the Exhibition, Super Gran has to leave to rescue the Invisibility Machine, but they commandeer a helicopter to bomb her as she climbs. Good luck Gran!
RIG ATTACK
Your mission is fly a helicopter from the Heli-pad on an Oil Rig and patrol the surrounding oil fields. If you have been unable to re-fuel, you will crash into the sea. To re-fuel (fuel and bombs) you land on any of the Heli-pads where an attendant will fill you up before take off. At any time in the game an enemy submarine can appear firing deadly torpedoes. To safeguard your rig you must fly over the submarine and drop your bombs, avoiding his missiles.
GUNSLINGER
You take the part of Jesse James the deadly gunslinger, out to increase his cash in the bank, gained through his rewards from outlaws on the run. Wanted dead or alive, Jesse only takes people one way – dead!! You start the game with three lives. Each life gives you a gun with 6 bullets, if you need to re-load your gun you must return to your saddle bag on your horse. The flashing arrows at the bottom left and right of the screen indicate where your next outlaw is hiding.
BATTLE STAR
Battle Star is a sophisticated combat zapping game. Beautiful smooth scroll with over 4 level of action, detailed graphics and great game play. Whilst on patrol over the waterly Planet Nuljai you encounter an Alien construction ringing the Planet. This construction was build by the evil Cyfrots to syphon off the precious water and transport it to its people. Your mission is to destroy the Cyfrots and blast out of sight ‘the Aliens’ marauding bombs!
CLIMB IT
Climb It is a 3 screen game. You are a heroic young man who has to rescue his beautiful girlfriend who has fallen into the clutches of a giant monkey. This monkey stays hidden from view but keeps both his eyes on his captive. Your mission is to rescue her, avoiding moving barrels, fires, climb the ladders and you have to go through moving elevators.
JET SET WILLY
Miner Willy, intrepid explorer and nouveau-riche socialite, has been reaping the benefits of his fortune discovery in surbiton. He has a yacht, a cliff-top mansion, an Italian housekeeper and a French cook, and hundreds of new found friends who really know how to enjoy themselves at a party. His housekeeper, Maria, however, takes a very dim view of all his revelry, and finally after a particulary boisterous thrash she puts her foot down. But Maria wont let him into his roomuntil all the discarded glasses and bottles have been cleared away. Can you help Willy?
WACKY PAINTER
In this game you are a paint brush and must paint around all the boxes to complete the grid. To stop you are 1-3 monsters which will make their way around the grid. If you hit a monster you will lose one of your lives. As the game continues it speeds up making it more difficult. A presentation can be opened from the game, in which the basic elements are explained. An addictive game for Wacky players!
You can buy the cart here, or download the games via itch.io here.